… and the fruit

This group of photographs is an ongoing body of work titled “…and the fruit”. The people I’m drawn to photograph are cast-offs in one way or another; disowned by their families, misunderstood or labeled by society at large, and in search of carving out their own personal paradise: one that only they themselves can author, but one in which somehow photography might kindle. They’re rebellious and heroic in unique ways, and despite their respective wounds and struggles, carry on courageously and free-spirited. I am interested in how picture making, with all its fabrications and half-truths, can become a process of self-discovery. Often the subject has a desire to be photographed in a certain way, and I allow them to play out different roles and expressions, as if the photo-shoot itself is a process of becoming, perhaps, who they already are. The act of photographing becomes a kind of unrehearsed dance, where the level of intimacy is pushed and pulled by the subject and myself. The result is unpredictable and depends on what they’re willing to reveal and what I’m willing to provoke and create out of these curious chance encounters.